Dominance Economy

The Dominance Economy (DE) is an idea inspired by the "Stroke Economy"
of Transactional Analysis, in which interactions with other people
("strokes") are seen as a limited resource - often to the extent of
being scarce. In the DE, the currency is competent dominance rather than
strokes, since submissives outnumber competent
dominants in the
BDSM Play Scene and the various
O&P, M/s, and D/s subcultures.

The DE can be used to view the problem of finding a dominant as a
marketplace, in which the service of the submissive is "bought" with
dominance. In the case of slavery and other types of
ownership, the
submissives themselves become the properties that are "sold". (However,
since dominance is not transferable, this marketplace does not provide
the ability for property to be sold on or its ownership transferred.)

Since the amount of dominance that can be "spent" is closely related to
the time that a dominant can devote to the management of a submissive,
the DE is also a useful concept within a household, when assessing the
impact of competing
demands on the dominant's time (eg work vs ownership; between multiple
slaves; between a submissive and other interests.)